An Enjoyable Conference Weekend

I always look forward to Conference Weekend.  It's the one time every six months that I can attend church in my pajamas with my hair not done and not a stitch of make up on.

I have been looking forward to this weekend for a couple of weeks now.  With my new calling in the Primary Presidency and still trying to get in a rhythm and figure things out, it was a well deserved break.  I love listening to the Prophet, his Counselors, the Apostles, members of the Seventy and all others that are asked to speak.  I love the uplifting words they provide.  I love the buoyed up feeling I receive.

Dave worked both Saturday and Sunday.  His schedule is so crazy now that one of the guys on his shift is out with a knee injury.  This does remind me not to take for granted when Dave does have Sundays off.  What a blessing it is to have him at home on the Sabbath and to have him with us at church.  When he's not there, I leave sacrament meeting exhausted and beading with sweat!  It's not as bad as it use to be when the girls were younger.  It's just always a chore keeping all three quiet and from picking on each other for 70 minutes!  However, as a family we understand Dave's career and understand that sometimes he can be with us and sometimes he can't.  Crime doesn't stop even though sometimes you wish it could pause for a minute.

Ashley was the only one that had a soccer game on Saturday.  How blessed we were that her game was at 9 a.m. in Wellsville.  We were home by 10:15 a.m. and enjoyed the rest of the weekend listening to all of the conference sessions.

My favorite speaker?  I would have to say it was the sister from the General YW Presidency (I should probably research and find her name but I'm being lazy at the moment).  She is the one that spoke on Father's raising Daughters.  Of course this topic is close to my heart......with a house full of girls.  I wish Dave would have been home to listen to it with us.  However, what a blessing Hannah was when she came up to turn conference on and she decided to record it too.  Now Dave and I can go back and watch it together.  Any words of wisdom we can get in raising three girls is greatly appreciated.  I struggle every day with how do you make sure they grow up liking and loving themselves.  How do you teach them to stand tall and be confident in themselves.  How do you teach them not to give in to peer pressure?  How do you teach them to always believe they are a Daughter of a Heavenly Father that loves them and will always be there for them?  I guess it's by going through the motions each and every day and by continuing the daily rituals of scripture study (even though you wonder if they're getting anything out of it), family prayer (which they can't hold still for) and regularly attending our church meetings (even though Sunday mornings are stressful and crazy and it would be easy to say never mind and stay home but we continue to go).

I also marvel at and enjoy listening to our dear Prophet, Thomas S. Monson.  I love to see his humor come out in his teachings.  I am speaking of his talk in this morning's session.  When the Prophet throws a bit of humor in his talk it reminds me that even though we hold him on a pedestal, he too is just like us.  I love how tender he is, how caring he is and how when he says that he loves each and every one of us, I feel that he truly does.

Well, after being uplifted with Conference, tomorrow starts a new week.  I wrote our schedule on the white board in the back hall and it looks as though Monday and Friday are the only two days of peace with nothing going on.  I am so thankful that Dave is currently on Day shift.  Especially for this soccer season.  I get a little bummed when I realize we are down to four more weeks of days and then comes Swing Shift, which is totally NOT my favorite.  The kids are in school and I'm at work while Dave's at home.  We come home and Dave's at work until the girls are in bed and sound to sleep.  This is the shift when I get high respect for single moms.  I don't know how they do it.  I do it for eight weeks and it is so hard but at least I know mine will come to an end in eight longs weeks but theirs doesn't.

We are missing Grandma Peterson as she is off touring the New England States.  Hannah is going through withdrawals.  If I'd let her, she'd call Grandma every hour to chat and see how things are going.  We chatted with her yesterday for a minute and she was by the ocean.  Today when we chatted quickly she was in Salem touring a ship in the harbor.

It is going to be a crazy week without her.  Hopefully, I can remember to take lunch early Tuesday and Thursday in order to pick Nicole up from preschool and to lunch late on Wednesday to pick Hannah and Ashley up from school for their early out day.

We do hope and pray that Grandma is having the time of her life.  Visiting the New England states is one of her life-long dreams.  It is fun to see that she's finally doing something she has dreamed about for years.  I hope she soaks it all in and has an amazing experience.  But....we can't wait until she's back!

Have a great week everyone.......if anyone reads my blog!